Samsung beats Apple to dominate UK smartphone market

New figures have revealed that Samsung smartphones enjoy the largest market share in both the UK and Europe – currently winning its retail battle against Apple.

The new data, from analysts Kantar Worldpanel Com Tech, shows that Samsung currently enjoys a 59.9 per cent share of the UK smartphone market – a year-on-year rise of 12.5 per cent.

Across Europe, the market share for Samsung stands at 45 per cent.

Although Samsung’s dominant market position has been helped in recent weeks by strong sales of its new Galaxy S3 model, Kantar points out that other Samsung models also contribute to the company’s dominance of the UK smartphone market. Dominic Sunnebo, global consumer insight director for Kantar, said:

“While the majority of noise is focused on big-name products such as the S3 or S2, it’s easy to forget that Samsung is selling smartphones across all tiers.”

Sunnebo pointed out that Galaxy Note, the company’s smartphone and tablet hybrid, also enjoys a position in the top ten sales of mobile devices.

Sunnebo, however, has been quick to caution against complacency on the part of Samsung – pointing out that the forthcoming release of the new generation of iPhones may well significantly boost Apple’s sales. He said:

“Apple continues to enjoy very high loyalty across the world. In Great Britain […] 92 per cent of current Apple consumers plan to buy another iPhone when they upgrade. With this in mind, any dip in Apple share is likely to be short-lived with the release of an updated iPhone.”